In Which Sometime Ones Musical Dreams Come True

Okay, so I am one lucky SOB.

Seriously.

First of all, I'm married to the greatest man on earth. He continues to go above and beyond. Case in point, last Friday we drove five hours across the chubby Commonwealth of PA to Philly in order to attend a concert featuring the two musical loves of my LIFE... Francis Dunnery AND Rhett Miller!!!!

I repeat:

Francis Dunnery AND Rhett Miller... together... on the same stage... in the same evening!?!

The whole event came about to celebrate the 20th anniversary of WXPN's morning DJ, Michaela Majoun. Turns out these two gents are her favorites as well. Marvelous taste Ms. Majoun has.

Yoda! What did I tell you about messing with my keyboard?

That's Michaela on the left. I LOVE her for putting this together. She got more than one big ole bear hug of thanks from me that evening. I'm happy to say I refrained from planting a big, sloppy, wet kiss on her. Now THAT would have been awkward...even if we were drunk. ;-)

Anywho, we met up with Kate (she's the woman right above me), Francis' house concert booker along with some other house concert hosts. Tony, our favorite merch guy was there, too. Erica and Francis brought their German guests (who hosted Francis), Rolf and Anka and their two adorable children, Julie and Lily. It was like old home week.

Geo and Rolf

Rolf's daughter Julie, looking adorable in Geo's hat

That's the cool thing about Francis. Once you have him to your home, you're part of his clan and are invited to visit him any time. We really like these people very much. They are so warm, affectionate and inclusive. They feel like family, without all the crappy expectations.

So back to the show.

Francis was up first. He played a short set which included his popular "Too Much Saturn" and this cover of Peter Gabriel's "Solisbury Hill".

He's such an amazing, effortless guitarist.

However, he's so used to the intimate house setting, I think the chattiness of the crowd threw him a bit. They were really loud. I find that so rude, and not just because they're talking over my buddy. As we like to say here in Pittsburgh, it's just ignorant. Geo's favorite line is "don't you just hate it when the band you've paid money to see is so loud you have to scream over them to talk to your friends?" Ha Ha! He kills me.

Then it was Rhett's turn.

In his usual fashion, he plowed through roughly 15 songs with his usual high energy, working up a complete, full-on sweat by the third song. The crowd had gathered around the front of the stage (including me, natch), but still there was chatter. I don't know. I don't get it. I seriously do not get it.

Another Girlfriend

Singular Girl

He ended his set with "Time Bomb" (his signature closer), jumped off stage and headed for the back when a radio-type asked him for an encore. So he finished his evening uncharacteristically with the rocking "Our Love", incorporating Michaela's name into the lyrics.

Then Kate let us tag along backstage where we were greeted with a big bear hug and kiss (for me, not Geo...although maybe he got one too) from Francis.

Y'all know how much I love hugs, right? Well, I do. LOVE em. Can't get enough of them from people I dig.

Rolf and his family were there, Kate, Erica, us...all yakking about this and that together. I looked to the other side of the room, and there was my little Rhett... all by himself putting his guitar away with no one talking to him. Unable to bear anyone being left out, I took one for the team and went to say hi.

I know, right? It's a dirty job, but someone had to do it.

But honestly, I felt bad. Everyone else was there for Francis. Turns out Geo and I were the only two of his fans in the room. We had a lovely conversation about recording, the beauty of bonus tracks, the Olympics, how my beloved Pens beat his Stars... I was surprised he brought that up. I had sent him a picture of the final score to jag him. In any case, he was as sweet as sweet could be, especially to agree to this..

So, my two dream men of rock finally met and performed together. They seemed to really hit it off, too. We must be living right this year. Either that or perhaps I have a fatal tum-ah which will cut my life short and God's doing me one last solid for the road. In any case, as the cheezeburger cat says "I can diez happy?"

Yeah. It was a good night. It was a very good night indeed.